Rechargeable batteries such as batteries made up of many lithium-ion cells can be used in many applications, including for example, electric propulsion vehicle (“EV”) and hybrid electric vehicle (“HEV”) applications. These applications often require advanced battery systems that have high energy storage capacity and can generate large amounts of heat that needs to be dissipated. Battery thermal management of these types of systems generally requires that the maximum temperature of the individual cells be below a predetermined, specified temperature.
Cold plate heat exchangers are heat exchangers upon which a stack of adjacent battery cells or battery cell containers housing one or more battery cells are arranged for cooling and/or regulating the temperature of a battery unit. The individual battery cells or battery cell containers are arranged in face-to-face contact with each other to form the stack, the stack of battery cells or battery cell containers being arranged on top of a cold plate heat exchanger such that an end face or end surface of each battery cell or battery cell container is in surface-to-surface contact with a surface of the heat exchanger.
Heat exchangers for cooling and/or regulating the temperature of a battery unit can also be arranged between the individual battery cells or individual battery cell containers that form the stack, the individual heat exchangers being interconnected by common inlet and outlet manifolds. Heat exchangers that are arranged or “sandwiched” between the adjacent battery cells or battery cell containers in the stack may sometimes be referred to as inter-cell elements (e.g. “ICE” plate heat exchangers) or cooling fins.
Examples of cold plate heat exchangers and inter-cell elements (or ICE plate heat exchangers) are described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/972,463 entitled COUNTER-FLOW HEAT EXCHANGER FOR BATTERY THERMAL MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS (Publication No. US 2016/0204486 A1), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Each cold plate heat exchanger or ICE plate heat exchanger includes an inlet and an outlet for the cooling fluid, and the inlet and outlet may be provided with fittings to permit connection of the heat exchanger to a coolant circulation system of the vehicle. Due to space constraints, the location and orientation of these fittings is significant, and it is desirable to design these heat exchangers such that the fitting locations and/or orientations can be varied with minimal retooling.